holding tank smells

I'd like to thank all of you that gave me some tips, i'll try them and do a little more reading on this topic. Once again sorry for the lack of information,and the inexperience of how to ask for help. I'll do better next time.
 
Maybe it stinks because there is a turd "Floatinaround" in it. :grin:

Just kidding. I don't think you got the advice and tips you were looking for because you didn't provide the details needed. Sorry that *some* board members have strange humor and tend to play with those posts that cannot really be answered without more info.

Try again with specifics.
 
Four Suns said:
I see posts all the time about people doing all kinds of stuff with growing different bacteria and such in their holding tanks, but at the end of the day, if you have a vacuflush system, it's pointless.
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And if we DON'T have a vacuflush what do we do? :) Many of the older boats and smaller boats don't have the alleged whooooosh, slam system. I've heard it's next to sliced bread on the list, but I don't know?


For the record, I have a Raritan manual flush, to a holding tank on my 300 DA. The 250 has a Jabsco to a holding tank. Both vents are less than ideal at about 1/2 inch. No Charcoal on the 250, haven't looked on the 300 yet? I'm sorry I don't have that information.
 
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Sundancer- We've discussed bacteria of all sorts, turds, smells, holding tank treatments, and a whole host of pleasant topics..... and you choose to bring up sliced bread in the middle of it? What are you going to use to butter it?
 
Sundancer said:
And if we DON'T have a vacuflush what do we do? :) Many of the older boats and smaller boats don't have the alleged whooooosh, slam system. I've heard it's next to sliced bread on the list, but I don't know?
Click to expand...
I believe Gary's point is that vacuflush systems flush with fresh water from the tank and not with sea water. Most of the odor causing anaerobic bacteria actually come from the sea water and not from the actual -- ahem -- waste (otherwise known as sh*t or p*ss). Because of that, the "enzyme-stew" approaches that are intended to mess with the bacterial loads in the holding tanks will not work when the bacteria you are trying to mess with aren't there.
So to your question of what do you do if you don't have a vacuflush... that's where it could make sense to attempt to manage the anaerobic bacteria in the manner laid out by Peggy Hall a few posts back.
 
Sundancer said:
And if we DON'T have a vacuflush what do we do? :) Many of the older boats and smaller boats don't have the alleged whooooosh, slam system. I've heard it's next to sliced bread on the list, but I don't know?
Click to expand...

I understand what you are saying for your boat setup... but we still don't know what Floatinaround has in his boat.. That year and model boat has the option of a vacuflush and my comments were specific to that. If you have a vacuflush system and it smells bad, trying to make the juice being held in the tank smell better will probably have NO EFFECT on where the smell is coming from.

I'll give a few examples.

I had someone decide it would be cool to live on my boat a few months last winter without me knowing about it. I guess Mr. Homeless dork probably didn't get lessons in the proper operation of a vacuflush system and he left human waste in and around the toilet for weeks and for me to find one cold day. The juice from this activity had soaked into and permeated the rubber seals on the toilet and I can tell you that making the holding tank smell better would not fix the stench of raw sewage in the bathroom. Is that extreme? NO! I have people all the time that think they should take a piss in the toilet and let it sit (boater friends no less) because "if it's yellow, let it mellow and if it's brown, flush it down." That practice will ruin the hoses and seals of any marine system but I guess it does save the occasional pump out. It's STUPID... and it has NOTHING to do with how good the crap smells INSIDE the holding tank.

As a measure of keeping the system smell free, when I leave the boat for a few days/weeks and I know the heads have been used, I flush the head a few times and also flush a little bleach down the thing on the last flush. It keeps the smell and growth out of the toilet, seals, and hoses and if I had any of the fancy schmancie organisms growing in the holding tank, it would kill them... but I don't care. I don't want my toilets, seals, or hoses to stink.

So for people that get all hoity toity on handling their holding tank in a "green" manner, I say for a modern system like vacuflush, it's like starching your underwear. No one will ever know unless something goes wrong but one thing is for sure is that you'll probably end up with a smelly toilet from not killing the bacteria growing on it.

And then you'll post a "My sewage stinks" with no details. Well... so does mine... but you can't smell it in the boat.
 
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I disagree.........there is a significant difference in the forums. CSR is completely free of heavy handed moderation by forum owners with an agenda.
 
I think we've covered aerobic and anaerobic now. Everyone should be equipped to deal with their own system and determine if the odor is the tank, the hoses, the head or what's lying around on the deck. I mentioned the odorlos and anaerobic in my first post because that's the easiest place to start and I've never met a Sea Ray that had adequate ventilation, so anaerobic bacteria usually needs some help with some oxygen creating enzyme. All you have to do is follow your nose and you can determine the source. Let's just hope it doesn't lead to you own behind! :)

We use lake water for our head and the lake we use is also the same one we drink out of many times. The water doesn't have anything in it to create a stench or stink in the head or tank. Next year we're heading to the San Juans (I know you guys are ALL jealous!) and we'll either draw seawater in or plumb a SEPARATE tank for the head. I think we'll just suck sea water and then determine what the stink is all about. That will make me appreciate freshwater boating that we do the rest of the year.


As for the "green" reference, that creates a bad mental picture and eating right comes to mind again!

Apple butter on that bread OK? Somehow that just fits here.

BOATing sites are all mannERED differently. This is still the best!
 
I'm surprised no one gave me grief on the bleach thing. Just so everyone knows, Dometec states not to use bleach in a vacuflush system as it can degrade the rubber seals.

However.. I put like 1/8 cup in bowl of water that is filled to the brim and then flush it before I leave. And I know it is not recommended... But I know I pump well over 6000 gallons of fresh water through the pumps every year and we put about 20 gallons of waste in the holding tank everyday we use the boat. That equates to putting over 1000 gallons through the vacuflush every year... And the only seal that ever went bad on me was the rubber ball ring seal in Baltimore last year but it was pushing 5 years old and had scale on the lip. I guess the duckbill valves in the macerator stopped working as well but again, 4 years old and not used that often.

I find foreign debris to be my biggest problem.. Not my bacteria killing solution.

I wouldn't recommend following what I do though... there... butt covered.
 
fwebster said:
I disagree.........there is a significant difference in the forums. CSR is completely free of heavy handed moderation by forum owners with an agenda.
Click to expand...

Yes, you're right about that. I love that about this place. In general, this is a great place to hangout.

It's just sometimes the "I won't answer without all the facts" theme gets me down. I can understand it when someone might get hurt but we're talking about a stinky holding tank here.

Maybe it's just a little cabin, fever now that the boats out of the water.
 
If all the pertinent information is not included in the post, the response may be completely wrong. What works for Vaccuflush, may not work for a raw water flush system. Its my personal feeling, but , I think specifics relating to type of boat and boating locations should be required before being allowed to post a question.
Just my $.02.
 
I'm probably the loudest proponent of having specific information on boat type and location as a mandatory part of membership for boat owners...heck, I would even like to see HIN#'s on the member's profile. I have spent a lot of time on Sea Ray dedicated forums in the past several years and have seen how important dedicated forums are in helping more inexperienced owners learn about their boats, how to maintain them, and how to boat safely.

I have also seen how unproductive trying to help someone who does not give boat specifics can be. This topic is a prime example.......in the year in question the owner's boat could have had a vacuufulsh, a manual or a Lectrasan head system on his boat and addressing head odors would have required completely different approaches on all 3, but even more imortant, what you do to fix odors on one is completely wrong on one of the others.

This topic has turned into 1 page of useful information and 5 pages of generally useless information and bad jokes about heads, and what goes in them that likely offended some. I'm sorry if our asking for enough information to properly answer owners questions gets you down. Try to look at it from another perspective.....some of us don't participate for amusement, we do it to stay active in boating and to help others. I think giving or requiring adequate information to quality and answer is a small price to pay for access to the wealtth of information available here.

Until boat specifics and location become manadatory, I am sure this isn't the last time you will hear this.
 
In the abstract, I agree that more information is better and mandatory technical details would lead to a more concise answers. But is that why this board exists? Are we mostly concerned with making Wikipedia for Searays? Or is this Club Searay, where we can laugh, joke and meet people, as well as give advice and personal experiences on our boats and boats like them?

Maybe I'm not taking this board serious enough.
 
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